Emerged in the 1950s, Pop Art challenges the traditions of fine art by incorporating mundane imageries from popular and mass culture. In 1957, British artist Richard Hamilton, one of the pioneers of Pop Art, listed the characteristics of the movement in a letter to his friends, the architects Peter and Alison Smithson: “Pop art is popular (designed for mass audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass-produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, and Big business.”Hermanto Soerjanto

Since then, art has come a long way. There are now more ways for audiences to interact with art; from the conventional way of purely looking at artworks in museums or galleries to wearing art as a part of their outfit, viewing installations in stores’ window displays, taking a ‘selfie’ with an artwork and posting it on Instagram. In today’s society, art has grown beyond the conventional understanding about itself, and has become integrated into the lifestyles of mass audiences, intersecting between consumerism and art. Art has become the ‘cool factor’. This phenomena connects art to other things in life, which opens up many exciting opportunities ahead for the artists and the audiences.

62 Years After Hamilton will showcase new artworks by Agan Harahap, Heri Dono, indieguerillas, and Uji “Hahan” Handoko Eko Saputro, which reflect on current issues and act as small evidence proving that we are living in possibly the most exciting time in art history, where art has power beyond museum and gallery walls and bring about tangible impact to human lives.